Page 39 of The End of Summer

“Are you okay?” he asks. “Did you break anything?”

“I think I’m fine,” I say.

“What hurts?”

“Other than my pride?”

“Yes.Physically.”

Arrow bursts in the room. “Summer! What the actual fuck?” She shoots Brady a fierce look. “You,” she says. “Why are you in here?”

“She fell,” he says. “I wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“Okay, there, knight in shining nutsack armor,” she says, the words dripping with sarcasm. “Get out there and air-fuck my customers, please. You don’t need to be back here.”

“Jesus,” Brady says.

“It’s okay, Brady. I’m all right.”

“Listen, Arrow,” he begins. “With all due respect, I was trying to help one of your employees. You know, if she got really injured, something tells me you don’t exactly carry a workers’ comp policy. You could have one hell of a lawsuit on your hands.”

She smirks at him. “Are you threatening me? Inmyhouse? Wearing a fucking thong?” She throws her head back in a laugh that sounds demonic. “That’s priceless. Seriously, dude. Get out there and do your damn job.”

“Brady,” I say, but my eyes say significantly more. “Go. I’m fine, I promise.”

He sighs, turns and leaves.

I inhale, preparing for Arrow to unleash her fury on me.

But she doesn’t. Instead, she just says, “Get yourself together and come back out as soon as you can, okay?”

I nod.

“You can walk, right?”

“Yeah. I think I just bruised my ass, to be honest.”

“You can take off the shoes, if you want. Pole barefoot for therest of the night.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I’m surprised at the shift in her tone with me as compared to Brady, almost as if she has some personal ax to grind with him. “He’s not supposed to be out there hooking up with them,” she comments. “He should know better.”

“Oh, that,” I say, remembering.

“I could get him fired if you want me to.”

“No, no,” I say. “It’s fine. I, just. He’s my neighbor. He used to be my boss. We have kind of a – um – complicated thing going on.”

“Are you two…” she trails off.

“No, nothing like that,” I clarify.

“Okay. Just checking. Because you know we look out for each other here. Chicks over dicks.”

I laugh. “I never heard that one before.”

Arrow nods. “I’ve told you before, Summer. Pole is a sisterhood. We always take care of one other. I could annihilate him for you, if you ever needed me to.”

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